If you watch the movie “Groundhog Day” you might catch an Erie reference.
In the scene at the diner when Bill Murray‘s character Phil Connors is talking with Andie MacDowell‘s character Rita Hanson, Murray tries to explain that he is living the same day over and over.
To prove his point, Murray pulls over a waitress named Alice, played by Martha Webster. Murray says: “This is Alice. She was born in Germany, she came over here from Ireland when she was a baby and lived in Erie most of her life.”
This leads to the question, why the Erie connection? What made the writers give Erie a 10-second mention in the film?
Does original script provide any clues?
Actor Stephen Tobolowsky, who plays insurance salesman Ned Ryerson in the film, hoped to shed some light on the Erie connection by contacting one of the movie’s screenwriters, Danny Rubin. Rubin responded by providing the Times-News a look at an early copy of the screenplay.
In the early draft of the script, Alice was supposed to be a practicing real estate agent waiting for her next big sale so she can move from Punxsutawney to Utah.